This article provides a commentary on Everett and Tremblay's (2014) analysis of ethics and internal audit by further exploring the role of the internal audit function within Nils Brunsson's model of organized hypocrisy (Brunsson, 1986, 1993, 2002). Specifically, we extend Everett and Tremblay's discussion of internal auditors as ‘moral’ actors and propose that the counter-coupling of an organization's primary outputs–talk, decision and action–provides internal auditors with the necessary tools to carry out conflicting ethical roles within the organization.